Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Who throws a pass at the one-yard line with 30 seconds to play in the Super Bowl?

Given the circumstances, that's got to be the dumbest play call in NFL history.

I seriously wouldn't blame the Seahawks if Bevell (or maybe even Carroll) lost their job over that, that's how bad it was.

Great game but ...

Disappointing as a Seahawks fan, obviously.

Equally as disappointing as a football fan. The story is always going to be about the play call and the Seahawks "throwing the game away" which historically won't give nearly enough credit to the Patriots for the championship they just earned. Plus the announcers were talking way too about about the deflated footballs - totally irrelevant to this game and the outcome of NE's previous game - which makes me think when someone's my age 30 years from now and they go back and watch this game they're going to come out of it thinking "so NE cheated and the Seahawks threw the game away." ... Doesn't do the quality of the game justice and most importantly, doesn't do the Patriots justice.

First off, Matt, my deepest sympathies. If it was the Steelers in the same situation, I'd still be too busy breaking stuff to post just yet. I agree that the ending will unfortunately overshadow what was a great game overall but, given the mind boggling stupidity on display by Carroll and Bevell, I can't blame anyone who has that as their main takeaway.

I know they won't dump Carroll over this but, seriously, I don't see how Bevell recovers and remains the Seahawks' OC.

26554 wrote:I'd still be too busy breaking stuff to post just yet.

Let me put it this way, sometime this week I'll be buying a new recliner because this one no longer reclines and now sits tilted to the right.

26554 wrote:given the mind boggling stupidity on display by Carroll and Bevell, I can't blame anyone who has that as their main takeaway.

Coaches coach. Players still got to play, can't absolve Wilson from throwing the ball. He's smart, he knows he had two more downs, no reason to force it. Bad all the way around (plus the receiver getting beat to the ball but that was more a great play by Butler at that point.)

Also could have not given up a two score lead and not have had to let it come down to that. Which the final chance was setup by a fluke catch before that ...

I should also note that that play call will also overshadow Belichick almost as inexplicably letting 40+ seconds run off the clock and not using a timeout.

26554 wrote:Given the circumstances, that's got to be the dumbest play call in NFL history.

I seriously wouldn't blame the Seahawks if Bevell (or maybe even Carroll) lost their job over that, that's how bad it was.

Nobody's going to fired over it but it was a horrible, horrible call.

Reaser wrote:Great game but ...

Disappointing as a Seahawks fan, obviously.

Equally as disappointing as a football fan. The story is always going to be about the play call and the Seahawks "throwing the game away" which historically won't give nearly enough credit to the Patriots for the championship they just earned. Plus the announcers were talking way too about about the deflated footballs - totally irrelevant to this game and the outcome of NE's previous game - which makes me think when someone's my age 30 years from now and they go back and watch this game they're going to come out of it thinking "so NE cheated and the Seahawks threw the game away." ... Doesn't do the quality of the game justice and most importantly, doesn't do the Patriots justice.

Agreed on all counts. The Patriots legacy is safe to any right thinking football follower. They beat the Colts 17-7 with under-inflated footballs and 28-0 with regulation balls. Spygate was almost as overblown...no pun intended. Whatever happened there didn't win any games for them. I thought Trent Dilfer had a good take on how every team looks for every possible edge, on the ESPN pregame show today.

26554 wrote:I should also note that that play call will also overshadow Belichick almost as inexplicably letting 40+ seconds run off the clock and not using a timeout.

I couldn't understand that decision either. It was one of the greatest games I've ever seen...no exaggeration...until the last minute took a lot of the gloss off of it with the clock running, the pass and then the embarrassing brawl.

JohnH19 wrote:

26554 wrote:Given the circumstances, that's got to be the dumbest play call in NFL history.

I seriously wouldn't blame the Seahawks if Bevell (or maybe even Carroll) lost their job over that, that's how bad it was.

Nobody's going to fired over it but it was a horrible, horrible call.

Reaser wrote:Great game but ...

Disappointing as a Seahawks fan, obviously.

Equally as disappointing as a football fan. The story is always going to be about the play call and the Seahawks "throwing the game away" which historically won't give nearly enough credit to the Patriots for the championship they just earned. Plus the announcers were talking way too about about the deflated footballs - totally irrelevant to this game and the outcome of NE's previous game - which makes me think when someone's my age 30 years from now and they go back and watch this game they're going to come out of it thinking "so NE cheated and the Seahawks threw the game away." ... Doesn't do the quality of the game justice and most importantly, doesn't do the Patriots justice.

Agreed on all counts. The Patriots legacy is safe to any right thinking football follower. They beat the Colts 17-7 with under-inflated footballs and 28-0 with regulation balls. Spygate was almost as overblown...no pun intended. Whatever happened there didn't win any games for them. I thought Trent Dilfer had a good take on how every team looks for every possible edge, on the ESPN pregame show today.

I agree that I wouldn't put an asterisk beside them, but if it's found that they broke the rules then they should be punished, period. While I don't seriously believe that they'll dump Carroll (though it wouldn't surprise me if we someday look back on this as the beginning of the end for him in Seattle), I could definitely see Bevell going. The guy's name is now going to be a curse word in Seattle.

JohnH19 wrote:It was one of the greatest games I've ever seen...no exaggeration...until the last minute took a lot of the gloss off of it with the clock running, the pass and then the embarrassing brawl.

I'll give you the brawl, but otherwise I thought the final minute was exciting as hell. Belichick made a decision to gamble on his defense stopping Seattle and not needing the timeouts -- which in fact is exactly what happened, so I hardly see any reason to criticize him for that. I think it's very safe to say he knows more about football than just about anybody, and it's usually an extremely good bet that whatever he chooses to do makes sense.

I have a similar thought about Seattle calling the fateful pass play. They had three more downs to go; they knew the Patriots were laying for another run by Lynch. So they took a shot at winning right away with that quick slant -- and Wilson's pass was right there, too. It just didn't work because of what might go down, all things considered, as the greatest defensive play in the history of the NFL. Look at how quickly Butler diagnosed that play, and how much ground he made up to beat the receiver to the ball and make a damn fine catch too. I see no reason to dismiss that great effort by saying oh, how could they throw the ball in that situation? The fact is that somebody has been calling the plays well enough to get Seattle to the Super Bowl two years in a row, and all of a sudden everybody in America is an expert on what they SHOULD have done. Well, I'm not signing this petition.